[in]verse
When Fall for Dance North’s Artistic Director Ilter Ibrahimof reached out to Arlen in April 2020 as a potential collaborator for their Virtual 2020 Festival (“The Flip Side”), no one knew quite what to expect. Ilter had the lovely idea, inspired by the Academy Award winning film Il Postino’s soundtrack, of featuring world-renowned dance-makers voices — reading poems, each of which would be paired with a particular piece of music. Over several months, Arlen worked with the team at FFDN and curated an album of poetry and music, and then remotely recorded each piece of music to pair with each dance-maker’s recorded poem. The hope behind the album was that it might provide a source of comfort, and hope, and peace during the isolating and devastating pandemic lockdown, while offering a surprising window of intimacy into a dance-maker’s life. The original album included poetry by Elizabeth Alexander, Joy Harjo, Joshua Jennifer Espinoza, Daniel David Moses, George Elliott Clarke, and others, as well as musical works by Reena Esmail, Bright Sheng, Daijana Wallace, Kenji Bunch, Chad “Sir Wick” Hughes, and more. The album in it’s original form was available for a limited time on FFDN’s website, and once the festival was over and life began to return to "normal,” FFDN decided to re-work the album and put it out as a permanent disc. Some of the curations and performers were switch around to create the “deluxe” version of [in]verse, which is now available on all streaming platforms. Please read/watch/hear more about the project on Fall for Dance North’s website, and on Arlen’s blog.
FAduo
FAduo is a vibrant, engaging young cello duo comprised of internationally acclaimed cellists Arlen Hlusko and Frankie Carr. Both graduates of the Curtis Institute of Music and trained by Carnegie Hall’s Ensemble Connect fellowship, they met at Music from Angel Fire in summer 2019 and got to know each other through their shared adoration for nature, and joy of making music together. Passionate about music of all kinds, from Bach to modern day composers, as well as avid readers and story tellers, their programs interweave beautiful works for 2 cellos in captivating ways. Learn more here.
Commissioning Projects
Arlen has always been particularly interested in music as collaboration — whether it’s across mediums, or within the realm of classical music itself. Both as a soloist and in an ensemble, she has worked with dozens of living composers in realizing new music. The first piece Arlen commissioned personally was Scott Ordway’s Nineteen, an evening-length work for solo cello which first came about through her series, Philadelphia Performances for Autism. Since then, Arlen has been a part of commissioning over 30 new works for solo cello, both through her September Solo Cello pandemic project, as well as individual partnerships with various composers, and in tandem with wonderful organizations like Tippet Rise and Bang on a Can. Please visit here for more information.
Music and Alzheimer's
Upon graduation as a Bachelor of Music, Arlen was selected to be an ArtistYear Fellow at the Curtis Institute of Music. One of the projects she developed focused on working with patients suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, specifically in communities with limited access to live arts and culture. She was originally inspired to curate this project through her own fascination with the effects of music on the brain, and research she encountered by the late Oliver Sacks. Her mission was to creatively serve as a teaching artist to patients with Alzheimer’s to enable them and their caregivers to find comfort, distraction, and coping through the means of artistic expression and enjoyment; to offer high-quality, enriching live music experiences for them to relax and enjoy together. Arlen conducted weekly hour-long home visits for a patient with Alzheimer’s and their caregiver(s) on a 6-week long basis, with an option to extend. Arlen was fortunate to partner with the Penn Memory Center (collaborating with some of the creators of this wonderful work), where she created strong and lasting relationships, and will continue to volunteer with them and their network of patients as long as she resides in the Philadelphia area. Her eventual goal is to find a neurologist with similar fascinations regarding the effects of music on the brain, and to collaborate on a research study focused on the effects of music on a demented brain.
Music and Autism
As an ArtistYear Fellow, Arlen split her time between two projects – working with patients with Alzheimer’s (as outlined to the left), and working with children with autism. With the children with autism, her mission was to creatively serve as a teaching artist to children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD); to present high-quality, enriching, live musical experiences to communities that may not otherwise have access to them; to enable youth with autism to build confidence, develop social, leadership, and organizational skills, and to find alternative means for expression to carry with them throughout their lives. As an ArtistYear fellow, Arlen engaged with communities with children with autism throughout the greater Philadelphia area, and taught weekly lesson plans to children in the autism program at Cooper’s Poynt Elementary School in Camden, New Jersey. She worked in partnership with the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia’s Center for Autism, and, inspired by a conference she attended at the CfA and families she met that day, developed an interactive performance designed specifically for families with children with autism to provide these families with the opportunity to experience live music in a safe, understanding, and welcoming environment. Overwhelmed by the positive feedback she received from the families, Arlen was inspired to found Philadelphia Performances for Autism, which, thanks to the generous support of the Tarisio Trust Young Artist’s Grant, premiered in the fall of 2016.
Music and Nature
Arlen has felt deeply connected to the natural world since she was an infant. Having grown up in a quiet, rural area in Canada and spent much of her childhood outdoors (even practicing outdoors!), she finds a sense of belonging and kinship in nature. She has long dreamt of designing a series combining many of her passions — finding connection and community in both music and nature, commissioning new and innovative musical works, forging deeper connections with the Earth in an effort to combat climate change — and bringing people together to admire and deepen respect for and understanding of the natural world. Stay tuned…
Live from Lowville with Love
As an effort to stay connected and share hope, joy, comfort, commiseration, community, and humanity through music in an incredibly isolating time, Arlen began her own Facebook livestream series, Live from Lowville with Love, in April of 2020. Episodes went live at 4pm EST on Saturday afternoons, were often themed, and were interactive virtual performances that invited audience participation and connection throughout every event. You can enjoy previous episodes here.